Evie Archer

The New Jersey native, Evie Archer, found that music came to her instinctively. Describing songwriting as a "compulsion," she would compose songs instead of essays for her Princeton Day School English-class assignments. Evie's path had some obstacles. An indirect journey of stops and starts, broken up by bouts with self-doubt. But once her goal was clear, key creative connections were made and everything seemed to fall into place. The results are evident in her debut CD "Life In Sand", which combines expert pop craft with raw emotional candor.

"I loved The Beatles. I admire the tight songwriting, and that's what I was inspired to go for in a pop song." Other influences include classic female singer-songwriters Carly Simon and Carole King, as well as more recent artists such as Alanis Morrisette, Rachel Yamagata, and Fiona Apple.

While continually writing, it was never with a plan to pursue it professionally. "I ran away from it for a long time." but Evie kept circling back and her performance of an original song won her the Princetonian Idol competition at Princeton University. Looking for someone to give her vocal training, she was steered to Dana Calitri and her husband Martin Briley, a renowned British singer/songwriter who has penned songs for everyone from Celine Dion, *NSYNC and Pat Benatar to Kenny Loggins. Evie began taking private songwriting lessons with Briley. "I'd bring him a song and he would critique it. I played him 'Beggar For Your Love,' and he said we should record it, and that evolved into 'we should do an album'."

Later, Gary Katz, famed producer of Steely Dan, as well as legends Diana Ross, Laura Nyro, and Joe Cocker, entered the scene. "Every once in a while an artist comes along whose music separates them from the crowd. Evie Archer is one of these artists", Katz says. Katz added some bells and whistles to Evie's song "Bad Behavior" and produced the single "On Christmas Day" which Evie wrote as a gift to her parents. and was a big hit this past Christmas season. Her music video of the song was nominated for the L.A. Music Critics Award for Best Holiday Video of 2013.

Able to blend melodic invention with an unusual degree of lyrical intimacy, Evie has grappled with challenges and periods of uncertainty and darkness. "Songwriting is personal and confessional. That's the imagery I know the best. It feels more real."

« back to Hot/Modern/AC Artist Info